How Much Do You Have to Practice?

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No matter what you're working on, you need to practice to improve. But how much practice do you need to do? How often? How long? For most people, 30+ min, 4x a week is sufficient to improve. But why? What even counts as practice? And how do I find the time?

It also depends on your goals. Are you just trying to be halfway decent? (which is a fine goal) Or are you actually trying to be the best you can be?

If you feel like you're putting the time in but still aren't improving, check this video out...

You also might enjoy these:

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0:00 - Intro - What are your goals?
1:10 - How much *could* you practice?
3:38 - What counts as practice?
6:09 - HookTheory
6:51 - How long should a practice session be?
8:19 - How to find the time?
10:15 - Storytime!

This video contains emojis that were designed by OpenMoji – the open-source emoji and icon project. License: CC BY-SA 4.0. Special thanks to OpenMoji!

[BradHarrison]

Take private lessons online with me! Practice techniques, musical motivation, theory, composition & arranging, improvisation, trumpet & brass fundamentals, or whatever musical/life coaching you’d like to work on. More information at www.bradharrison.ca/lessons

[rusenot]

Sometimes when you are not practicing your musical instrument for about a week and then you finally deacide to practice you may feel improvements, I really don't know how it works, but it works, so sometimes you need to have a rest so you could move further

[darkalligraph]

Self-taught piano player here, I've managed to practice every day for the past 2 and a half years.

I'm not sure how I suddenly gained such motivation, I started learning German daily a year prior, and perhaps that taught me how to work on something daily.

But I think in the end if you're truly passionate about something, it's not difficult to get yourself to practice, you just do it because you enjoy it.

[Gaizure]

When I first started learning instruments (3 at once) I did 20 minutes each, 5 days a week. Once I found myself getting past absolute beginner level, I bumped it up to 30+ as I found myself needing to practice more individual things with overall technique (this is huge on guitar). Not surprisingly all of them improve at a very stead pace.

[owlly_]

I give hugs to all who wanted him to explain why we only need to practise 4 times a week

[winstoncadman]

Music teacher here... Thank you for breaking this down so well. I just sent this to a group of music students. I am seeing a clear difference between those who practise more times a week than those who practise once a week.
When I was a young student I only made real progress once I realized that the mind and body needs consistent practise over the course of a week rather than a cram practise session of two hours before lesson day.
These days I make a point of telling and showing my students HOW to practise because you have to have a plan🙏

[SAHBfan]

I have a drum instruction book written in 1934 by Max Bacon, who was regarded as one of the World’s best drummers at the time (pre-dating the superstars, such as Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich). His practice routine advice was to practice every day, both morning and evening, but only for 15 minutes each session. He said, obviously, you could do 30 minutes or a hour if you have the time, but as a minimum, 15 minutes twice a day every day is far, far more useful than ‘3 hours at the weekend because it is raining’. He insists, though, that you MUST practice every day, twice, no compromise. Same times, every day, it must be a regular routine. Nothing must interrupt this practice. Don’t open the door to visitors, don’t let anything interrupt your routine, it is sacred. He also emphasises the importance of twice a day. He claimed things stick in your head much quicker if you attempt to learn something in intense concentration for 15 mins - then revisit it later in the day. I tried it for a while and he was definitely onto something, it was a very efficient way to learn and practice. I ultimately found it impossible to stick to it, though. Real life and other people have a habit of butting into the routine 😡

[legrangedylandlg]

Guitar player here. I play everyday and I think it's important to have fun because if it's a chore you will never allow yourself to achieve the same level as success as someone who is passionate about the same hobby. My goal Is to be able to play anything I'm presented with, no matter how technical. Even if it takes me 50 years to get there!

[WillsJazzLoft]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this subject. I find that my challenge to improvement is staying focused. If I find myself getting bored or burned out with what's before me, I'll keep it moving. I set a timer for between 5 and 10 minutes that I practice a specific piece or exercise. When it's up, I move on to something else. The last thing that I want is for that hour of practice to drag by. My priority and my goal during any practice session is to enjoy what I'm doing. If that happens, then I've had a successful practice.

[inzanozulu]

Throughout my life I've been discouraged in many of the things I've tried. But lately I've been better at pushing myself through and just trusting the process. While I agree that practicing efficiently is the platonic ideal, I believe that for some people as myself, chasing that ideal can get in the way of progress, at least when you're starting off. Basically over-thinking things and wasting time I worrying about if my practicing is good enough. In reality, I think that you need to reach a certain level of competence before you're able to then reflect and say 'OK. This is how I should spend my practice time'. Before that, it was more effective for me to just shut my brain off and follow a generic process.
For context, the two skills I'm working on are playing the violin, and wakeskating. And I've finally made huge improvements to both over the last year by just doing it and not worrying about anything like long term goals or whatever. And now I am finally at the stage where I can properly plan and target key things in my practice
Just my thoughts of course, everyone is different.

[gigawhat]

I feel like it also depends on your passion, your thrive for practice. I'm a self taught guitar player, and I know that if I start constantly playing guitar, then I'll more easily get tired and annoyed and lose my passion. You have to also be passionate and find what you are doing fun.

[francescomanfredi]

The English translation to French is delightful! Great lesson by the way!

[beauxr.benoit]

You always need to practice, (I taught myself how to play the drums and then later taught my Dad as well.) You always need to practice or you will forget things or just let the muscles you use get weak. Also, you don't notice you are practicing if you are enjoying what you are doing.

[ianmclean]

Lots of great tips in this video. I would like to add that it is paramount that you don`t force speed on yourself in learning something new. Resist the temptation to play or do something too fast. You will inevitably be repeating and learning mistakes if you do this. If you are practicing music, use a metronome and keep dropping the tempo until you can play it well. Only then should you increase the tempo but start backing down the tempo when you make mistakes. This is a long process, so be patient. You aren`t going to become great or fast overnight. Chart your progress. Do at least a little bit everyday. Make yourself do at least 5 minutes a day, which sounds crazy but if you can get yourself to do that, the chance is high that you will take much more than 5 minutes once you get into it. You`ll likely at least end up doing a minimum of 15 minutes a day, which is nearly a total of 2 hours a week, spread out. Memory experts say that learning anything spread out over time is far more effective than cramming information in a single session. Food for thought.

[Mrphilharmonic]

This is great - says it all. The truth can hurt, or at least irritate a bit. Fact is, when I was a young kid, there were so fewer distractions. My piano WAS my Gameboy, my Xbox, Facebook etc. I loved it so I wanted to practice, but because no one CALLED it practice, it didn’t ‘feel’ like …. Practice.
I feel if we could just find another word to substitute for practice millions more students would do far better. I tell my students not to use the word ‘practice’ but “REHEARSAL” instead. I find that focuses the mind in the right direction, on performance rather than drudgery. It’s also installs a sense of urgency. Give it a try and let me know how you get on

[Matcha-soda]

8:55 That hit really hard and it was probably what i needed to hear. I really need to fix my bad habits and make a schedule for what I'm going to do. I'm glad i watched this video!!

[markbrown]

I am a solo instrumental guitarist once I started reading music back in 1981 I will practice reading about four or five times a week at least but as I got better I got more interested in it and started putting more time into this day I practice every day and sometimes take a day or two off to let my mind rest but most times I practice guitar every day I have become a solo instrumental guitarist and been playing for about 46 years musics my life I love it thanks for the video I will save it have a great day👍🏼🎸🎼🎶👍🏼😀💖

[SwapneelGhosh]

Yet again.. this is 100% relevant information. Thanks for the reminder! :)

[Whynot]

Practice doesn't made perfect, only perfect practice makes perfect.

[elegostar]

40 hours a day is the only accepted practice